Paul Finebaum responds to outrage on SEC in NCAA Tournament, sends warning to league

The Southeastern Conference did have that record-breaking season this year in earning 14 berths into the 2025 NCAA Tournament. That has led to criticism against the league but, by the end, Paul Finebaum thinks it’ll only be worth listening to depending on what happens in the bracket between now and April 7th.

Finebaum discussed the negative reactions to the historic amount of bids for the SEC on Selection Sunday while on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday. He said none of it is really worth paying attention too because the field is already set with nearly all of the programs in the conference having made it in by the committee’s selection.

“I mean, it’s mostly falling on deaf ears but there’s so many different layers to the NCAA Tournament. This is, this is the most critical one – getting in and then what’s happened,” said Finebaum. “And, yeah, there’s going to be a lot of people rooting against the SEC. This is not unusual. It’s almost football-like.”

In total, the SEC combined to go 344-182 (.654), which started at 201-36 (.848) in the non-conference for beating each other over the past two and a half months. 14 of the 16 teams finished with winning records with only LSU and South Carolina missing out on March.

So, as of Selection Sunday, the Southeastern Conference was represented throughout the four regions of the bracket. That’ll start on Wednesday with Texas playing for a No. 11 seed in the First Four. From there, the SEC has two No. 1 seeds in Auburn and Florida, two No. 2 seeds in Alabama and Tennessee, and almost one seed apiece from lines three through eight in Kentucky, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri, and Mississippi State. They then have two more in No. 9 seeds with Georgia and Oklahoma and then two more in No. 10 seeds in Arkansas and Vanderbilt.

However, that said and done, the SEC has to live up to that history now. Advancing in the field with an appearance or appearances in the Final Four would still be great and all considering the difficulty of the tournament. However, a national championship for one of the fourteen would be about the only definitive answer to the questioning of them this season.

“I do think it’s incumbent upon the SEC to make an incredible showing. When you have such a preponderance of the field, you are under that microscope,” said Finebaum. “I’ll repeat what others have said and I’ll say it again. I think the Final Four is the first frontier but, but I think, this year, it’s not about the Final Four. In ’19, that was fantastic when Auburn got in there. And a couple years earlier when South Carolina made it and, obviously, last year with Alabama. But the SEC does need to win because I think, until you win the NCAA Championship, those blue bloods, those elitists will not take you as seriously and then they’ll say, ‘Well, okay, this was an abberation, this was a weird thing’. Whatever they’re saying now that isn’t true, they’ll pile on then.

“I think, I think in basketball, the Final Four is almost, is what people talk about. Unless you’re at the very top of the game, getting to the Final Four is everyone’s goal. Football is different. You know, everybody has their own wishlist in football. So I, I think if you ended up with, let’s say Auburn and Florida in the Final Four? I don’t think anybody is going to be able to say too loudly any of the negativity.”

The SEC is going to have the best chance, relative to the rest of the field, of winning the national title. The only way to do that is to get a team, or teams, to San Antonio first for a chance at hanging a defining banner for whichever program as well as for the conference

“To the average fan, winning, winning and going to the Final Four are the barometers in basketball,” Finebaum said.

“I do think, in a couple weeks on Monday night, it would certainly help the cause if the SEC was not only in the game but winning it.”